Two Hearts That Wax And Wane
by dfcfanfics
Summary: Adrien isn't entirely sure what he's done that hurt Marinette... whether it was the statue incident at the museum, or something he said in the car... but he knows he screwed up, and he needs to fix it. Getting close to Marinette won't be easy, though, and sometimes a chase leads one down unexpected paths... Puppeteer 2 response fic, four chapters, one per day. Enjoy!
1. Adrienette Anxiety

MiraculElse #11: Two Hearts That Wax And Wane

\- Or - The Redemption of Adrien and Utter Collapse of the Love Square in Four Easy Pieces

(Timeline: Immediately after the end of Puppeteer 2. So SPOILERS for that, obviously!)

* * *

Chapter 1: Adrienette Anxiety

* * *

_I... just screwed up._

_I'm not entirely sure _how_ I screwed up so badly..._

_But I _know_ I just screwed up._

In the back of his family car, Adrien Agreste sat uneasily, feeling like his stomach was shrinking to the size of a golf ball. This had been one of the weirdest days of his life so far, and it didn't show any signs of improving after what had just happened.

He played it back in his head:

_We just had the most awkward moment... ever. I thought Marinette was angry at me while we were at the wax museum; Nino seemed to think so, anyway, and told me that. So when I saw her coming into the room with me, I pretended to be a statue of myself, because I was hoping that would make her laugh and break the tension._

_She came in... she started admiring the "statue," saying all kinds of silly and romantic things about it... she even plucked one of my hairs off my head, and I have no idea how I sat still through that!_

_And then she nearly kissed me... and then she DID! She KISSED me on the lips!_

_And I freaked out, and I broke my pose and showed her that it was really me... and she MAJORLY FREAKED OUT. _

_How did that even... HAPPEN? How did either of us let it get to that point of craziness?_

_But... that's not even the part where things really got bad. It really wasn't!_

_Marinette and I were here in the car just now... talking about the jokes that we'd pulled on each other. She said that she shouldn't have kissed my statue, the one that was really me, because she didn't know it was really me... and I had to stop her right there. I was the one that let it happen, trying to mess with her, and I let her keep going until things got weird; that was all my fault! _

_So I stopped her and apologized to her right away. I told her that I shouldn't have joked with her by pretending to be a statue. If I hadn't done that, none of that would have happened! I didn't want her feeling bad over something that I did._

_Okay... _

_I apologized for that. I know I did. I even told her that Ladybug - well, I couldn't _say_ it was Ladybug, of course, because it's Chat Noir that she says it to, and of course Marinette can't know that I'm Chat! - so I said 'the girl that I love' to protect who that is. Anyway, I said that the girl's always telling me that I make too many jokes..._

_And the whole atmosphere in the car changed _just like that_. Marinette looked like I'd kicked her in the stomach, all of a sudden. I asked if she was all right, she said yes, and then she left... but she sure wasn't! She was hurting bad, and she didn't want to admit it._

He looked up for a moment... and caught the Gorilla glaring at him in the rear-view mirror. The light changed, and his driver's focus returned to the road.

_Wow, even __HE'S mad at me! _Adrien thought.

_I just don't... get it. I messed up, and I said that I was sorry for what happened, and I admitted that I know I do that kind of thing too often... I'm not sure what else I could have said about the statue incident. So why is she that upset about it, _after_ I apologized? Why did it escalate like it did at the end?_

_DO I tell too many jokes as Adrien? I don't think I do..._

_I should call her or text her later, or something... and make sure that she's all right. I really don't like the vibe between us now. I can't lose her as a friend over something silly like this!_

The rest of Adrien's ride home continued in silence.

* * *

Dinner seemed uneventful for Adrien; bland, as usual, but at least filling.

He went upstairs to his room and shut the door, only to see a small black blur go flying out of his pocket.

"Oh, ho ho _hooooo_... you did it now," Plagg cackled.

"You too?" asked Adrien, looking exasperated. "Did I get Akumatized and not realize it? All of a sudden, I feel like a villain and I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong today. When Marinette left the car, she looked like I'd just shot her family dog."

Plagg scoffed, "C'mon, now. Really."

Silence followed, until Plagg asked, _"Really,_ Adrien. You don't get it?"

"No! I _don't!"_ Adrien whined. "I've been trying to figure it out ever since it happened... What did I _say_ that got Marinette so upset? I thought I was apologizing for what I did wrong back there, the statue prank I pulled. I just wanted her to laugh. I didn't mean for it to get out of control like that."

Plagg just stared back, dumbfounded. _He STILL doesn't understand that Marinette absolutely adores him? The girl told him that she wanted to embrace him forever today, kissed him on the lips and took a hair sample. Does she have to strip naked and paint herself purple and dance the Charleston, too?_

_"_Adrien... for one thing, part of what I can tell you is that Nino's not your best source of information sometimes. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he told you what he did about Marinette. Of _course_ she likes you, she could never hate you, and she'll always be your friend," he began. "Doesn't that seem obvious?"

"I kind of hoped so... she's one of the best friends I have. Definitely the nicest," Adrien agreed. "And I really did want her to laugh at me... and then she started acting so strangely. Do you know what that was all about, Plagg?"

"I... can't say."

_I really _can't_ say,_ grumbled Plagg to himself. _I can't say that she's in love with you because then you'll just go on and on about how Ladybug is your true love, and I can't tell you that _she's Ladybug_ and things will get weird from there. And by this time I shouldn't freakin' HAVE TO!_

"Well, what else _can_ you say? You said that was part of what you could tell me," prodded Adrien.

"What I _will_ tell you is simple. Think about everything that happened today. The statue thing, what she said to you, the kiss she gave you, how you both reacted to it, _what you said in the car_. I'm sure it'll come to you."

Plagg buzzed away, out of reach, content to leave it at that. _Adrien, you're my buddy and everything... but you're too smart to be this dumb,_ he thought. _And you need to figure that out on your own._

* * *

As bedtime approached, Adrien paced the floor in his room, still feeling unnerved. _Plagg made it sound like this was so obvious. Then why can't he just spell it out?_ he grumbled to himself.

He picked up his phone. _I can at least talk to her from here, _he reasoned. _Clear the air a bit._

Quickly, he unlocked it, and checked his instant messenger app...

... only to see that while Marinette had been online, her status changed to "Offline" almost instantly after he logged on.

_That's odd,_ he thought. _Maybe I should just call her?_

He selected her number and pressed Dial...

...only to hear his call go straight to voice mail.

_Also unlike her,_ he pondered. _She must've turned her phone off. She doesn't usually go to bed this early, I think... I see her on Messenger later than this all the time._

At the beep, he left a short message:

"Hi, this is Adrien. I was just checking on you, hoping everything was all right... I'll see you tomorrow at school. Bye!"

* * *

It was a long and restless night for Adrien.

He closed his eyes... and he saw a beautiful girl dancing around him, pretending not to know that he was real. She admired his appearance, she savored his natural scent, she recited sweet poetry about wanting to be a statue just like him, next to him, holding him...

He knew that she knew the truth. That when she took him in her arms, leaned in close, and whispered about eternity together... she was not at all serious about it. It was a riposte to his own joke, a turning of the tables, her way of making him sweat and wonder what might happen next. Marinette has excellent reflexes, after all... she saw his move from the start, she parried it cleanly, and she definitely won _that_ point.

She'd told him so, right after he'd scared five years off her life by breaking his pose. She told him directly that it was all a game, that her play-feelings for the statue were different from hers for him. Of course they were! Anything else would be...

And Marinette hates lies and hates liars. She wouldn't _possibly_ lie to him about something that could change the way they look at each other... right?

Just like that day that he'd asked her about all of those pictures in her room... and she told him, point-blank, it wasn't a crush, she was just into fashion. She hadn't lied that day, either.

It was hard for him to imagine that Marinette was even _capable_ of lies.

Misunderstandings, perhaps... and when they talked it out in the car, she'd made it clear again. It was all just one... big... misunderstanding.

His mind reset and replayed her words, her dance, her embrace, her...

He saw her startled reaction over and over, how badly he'd scared her when he stopped her from kissing him.

He imagined a slightly different scene... one where he held perfectly still, as before... but where her nervousness wasn't because he'd stopped her joke, but because it _wasn't_ one. Because she really didn't know that he was real. Or because... because... well... odd things happen in dreams, do they not?

And he saw... another reality, another variation, a strange fantasy world... where he _hadn't_ stopped her. Where, for whatever reason... he'd _joined_ her.

And it was debatable which of those wisps of fantasy did the most to keep him awake.

* * *

The next day, Adrien walked up the stairs to his school with a feeling of determination. _I need to get to the bottom of this,_ he thought. _Marinette is way too special a person for me to not make up for... whatever I did wrong. All the things I did wrong._

He stepped into his classroom, hoping to see the usual sea of friendly faces... but the section surrounding his seat looked less than promising. Nino waved to him, but looked a little... uneasy? Alya was talking to Marinette, turned to give him a perturbed look... _What did I do to _her_?_ he wondered... and then went back to tending to her friend.

"Hey, everybody," he said, pleasantly. "Hi, Marinette," he then ventured, looking up at her...

She'd been staring down at her notebook. At hearing his voice, she lifted her head up, looking rather melancholy... said a quiet, "Hello, Adrien," and ducked her head down again.

_Ohhhh...kay,_ he thought. _THAT isn't good._

_Class is starting, so I can't really talk to her now, and I'd kind of rather talk with her when we're alone, anyway... if she's feeling hurt or embarrassed, I don't want to broadcast it in front of all her friends here. If Chloe smells blood in the water, Marinette will never hear the end of it, and that's _all_ she needs right now._

_But she is _not_ happy. I haven't seen her this down in a long time. _

_And I need to fix this._

* * *

As class dismissed, Adrien looked up eagerly, hoping to catch Marinette on her way out the door... but he would've needed a skateboard to keep up with her. Her arms wrapped tightly around her possessions, her head down, Marinette hustled out the door and down the hallway as fast as she could without getting yelled at for running. He called her name, half-heartedly once it became obvious that she wanted nothing to do with him right now, and got no response.

Lunchtime arrived, and as Adrien expected, that was also no time to get Marinette alone. She sat with her girlfriends, as usual, and they were a tight ball around her. From what he could detect through their defensive shielding, she wasn't talking about the indignities she'd suffered in any kind of animated manner; she wasn't cursing his name or telling wicked versions of what happened. Quite the opposite... it was more as if they were trying to pry details out of her, and she just didn't want to talk about _anything._

Nino watched him, glumly, from his position across their lunch table. "She's still out of it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Adrien agreed. "Whatever it was that I did... I did it good."

"Whatever you..." began Nino, then trailed off.

Adrien looked agitated. "I mean, I didn't think what happened in that room was that bad! We were both just messing around. I shouldn't have pretended to be a statue, but she was the one who kept going with her play-acting," he lamented. "I'm not that great an actor. Anyone who heard my voicework on that Ladybug movie knows that! I was _absolutely sure_ that she knew it was the real me, and I stopped her once it got... before she did anything else that she wouldn't want to do for real."

_Wouldn't want to do for REAL?_ Nino thought, shaking his head slightly. _Adrien, my man... Marinette's not always the easiest to read, but when it comes to you, you think that she's an open book but you haven't gotten past her title page._

He looked over at his friend, who said, "Nino, I need to fix this... but I can't even get near her. Do you think you could take her a message... what?"

Nino shook his head from side to side _vehemently. "_Adrien... I think I might've done enough damage already. Alya would gut me. This is between you and Marinette now, I'm sorry."

"Great," grumbled Adrien. "I mean, I'm not mad at you, don't get me wrong, I understand what you're saying. But I can't even get near her today."

As he said that, an errant thought wandered through his head.

_But I bet that I know who can..._


	2. Marichat Melancholy

Two Hearts That Wax And Wane, Chapter 2: Marichat Melancholy

* * *

As was often the case, Marinette was rather pleased that her house was close to her school. On days when she was running late and needed to burst into her classroom at high speed, that proximity was a major benefit.

And on days when she really didn't feel like talking to anyone - not her best friend, not her other classmates, and certainly not _one_ of them in particular, because what could she possibly say to him now? - a short trip meant a clean getaway. All she had to do was keep her head down, her ears closed and her legs moving.

As she entered the bakery, her mother greeted her as usual... then frowned, taking in Marinette's lack of her customary sparkle in a glance. "Are you all right, Marinette?" she asked. "You didn't seem yourself this morning at breakfast... and you still don't."

Marinette paused, stopping before she reached the stairs. "I'm fine, Mom," she mumbled.

"You're sure?" Sabine asked, cocking her head. "You know that you can always talk to me about anything."

"Yeah, I know," said Marinette, with something of a sad smile. "Just... I have some things I need to work out in my head. Nothing I can't handle for now, but thank you for offering."

As Marinette climbed the stairs, Sabine watched her go, then peeked out the front window of the bakery. She saw a familiar sedan parked in front of the school with a blonde head poking out above it, staring in her direction meaningfully, concern visible on his face even from that distance... then ducking down into the car.

_Ohhh,_ she thought. _THOSE kind of things to work out_. _She came back from that wax museum trip yesterday in a terrible mood... and I think I just peeked at the reason why._

_My poor dear... it's never easy, but the first heartbreak is always so hard._

* * *

At supper, things hadn't seemed to have improved much. Marinette was eating, but pushing some of it around on her plate aimlessly with her fork, her thoughts drifting somewhere far away.

"Are the dumplings not how you like them?" asked Tom, looking puzzled. "I know your mother spent a lot of time working on those today..."

"Oh!" Marinette replied, jerking back to reality. "Oh, no, they're really good!" She scarfed two of them down, quickly, to show her mother that this was not a referendum on her cooking.

"It's fine, dear, don't stuff yourself," Sabine soothed. "You have a lot going on right now. Just eat what you want."

"Is something wrong, Marinette?" Tom continued. "Anything that we could help with?"

"No..." Her fork dropped, not angrily, but more wearily. "I'm fine, Dad. I'm just... I'll be fine again soon, I promise."

"Hmmm," he muttered, not thrilled by her answer.

"Tom, don't worry about it right now, okay?" said Sabine, quietly. "It's nothing we did, Marinette just needs a little... space right now."

"Thank you," Marinette added, with a grateful half-smile towards her mother.

Tom let it rest, but not without a questioning eyebrow towards his wife. She waited until Marinette's eyes were on her plate, then mouthed _Boy _silently in his direction.

Tom mouthed back, _Ohhhh,_ and refocused on his own entree. _This might be out of my territory,_ he thought, _unless she comes to me on her own_. _If Sabine's supporting her, and it looks like she is, I'll wait and see if that happens._

* * *

After doing the dishes and pushing herself through some light table conversation, Marinette padded up to her room, climbed onto her bed and flopped on it with a satisfying _foomph_ sound.

"Hang in there, Marinette. These things are never easy... but they get easier," said a small voice over her head.

"Yeah. Eventually," she mumbled, her face half full of pillow. She flipped over for politeness's sake, and added, "I really didn't want to face him today... not even a little bit."

"I got the sense from his face and his body language that he knows that he messed up," Tikki commented. "He has no poker face when it comes to you in pain."

"That's funny... he was perfectly stone-faced while I made an _ass_ of myself yesterday!" Marinette snapped back. "Almost like a statue."

Tikki wrinkled her nose at that. "He didn't _mean_ to hurt you, Marinette. You know that, right?"

"No, he didn't," she sighed. "He didn't mean to hurt me... he just _did_ _it_. Because I can't make myself tell the _real _Adrien how I felt about him, and if he doesn't know that, I might as well be an eggplant to him. He's a good friend... and I'll make sure that he stays that way. But he'll never see me any other way."

"How you... _felt_ about him?" wondered Tikki, catching Marinette's change in phrasing with more than a little surprise.

Marinette sat up. "Do you know why I left those pictures up last night, Tikki?" she asked, pointing to the heart-adorned pictures of Adrien hanging on a nearby wall. "To remind myself. The next time that I feel like a schoolgirl with a hopeless crush, aiming way above my league, trying to solve the puzzle and make a boy love me... that'll remind me not to bother, that I can't _make_ it come true no matter how hard I try. It'll either happen or it won't."

"I'll find _somebody_ someday, I know," she sighed. "But it'll just kind of... happen, instead of my trying to force it."

She paused, taking in Tikki's look of concern. "Maybe I should just turn that part of myself off for a while," she mused. "No more chasing fantasies and daydreams... just let the world come to me for a change. See if anyone comes knocking on _my_ door and build off of that, if it happens! It might be a much healthier approach."

*TH-BMMP!*

Tikki giggled, "That was a fast answer to your question," and even Marinette had to laugh at the timing of Chat Noir's telltale roof-thump.

"All right, you! Scoot," Marinette shooed Tikki away, affectionately. "Chat, I assume that's you?" she called to her arriving guest. "You can come down."

* * *

A dark-clad figure with blonde hair crept down her balcony ladder, tentatively.

"Hey, you," Chat greeted her. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd check on my favorite designer-in-progress. How are things?"

She half-smiled back at him, and replied, "Ehhh. I'm okay, I guess. How about you?"

"You don't look so okay," he frowned. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? I really need to learn to call ahead."

"No, no, it's fine. I was doing a whole lot of nothing," Marinette assured him, flopping back on her bed to get comfortable. "Just thinking about a bunch of stuff that I don't want to think about any more."

"Mmmm. When I'm 'just thinking,' it's usually not happy thoughts. I know what that's like," Chat said. He curled up cross-legged on her bed, facing her. "Anything that you'd want to talk out with a friend?"

"I'm not really in the mood, Chat, but thank you for offering," she sighed. "I'm just... I think that I'm done with boys for a little while."

His startled face made her warn him, "And, no, I'm not playing for any _other _teams, either! Don't even go there, Mister Funny Man."

"I... wasn't," Chat stammered. "Trust me, I wasn't! Jokes have been... getting me into trouble lately. That's... kind of a big change of heart, though, isn't it? What brought that on?"

Marinette stared at him, realizing that she wasn't going to get out of talking about it. "Look... I don't want to go into all the details, okay? But... yeah, I'm not okay. I can't really hide much from you, can I?" she asked.

"I'm not going to rip the story out of you... but I'd like to help, if there's any way I can."

"Oh, you're always a help, you know that! You have Ladybug on the brain, and no one else exists for you that way. I have my... guy friend, and I'm just as hooked on him," she offered, in a strained voice. "And we both keep trying, and we both keep failing, and we both keep meeting like this to share our horror stories."

"And things happened yesterday, I don't want to talk about what, but they made me realize that all I'm doing is banging my head on a wall. I'm not making progress. I'm not going to make him notice me that way. I'll be his friend... but I'll never be _his."_

"That's a rough feeling," said Chat, lightly. "I can't say that I've never felt like giving up on Ladybug that way. I always come around over time; she's too amazing for me not to... but there are a lot of days when I just don't see any way that it could happen. She's pretty darned _insistent_ that it's not in the cards."

_I didn't see Marinette as Chat Noir at all yesterday, _he thought. _So the guy that things happened with wasn't... _

_Whew! For a minute there, I was afraid that the guy friend she was talking about was ME,_ _as Chat Noir! We kind of danced around that once before, the day her father became Weredad, and I'm glad that ended in a good place..._

"Ladybug is... well, I can't speak for her, obviously... but her situation's a little different. Who knows, maybe she will start responding back to you some time?" mumbled Marinette, hanging on by a thread. "It's not like she's... never mind, I don't know what I'm talking about there! Chat... I didn't really _want_ closure for my crush... but I kind of got it, loud enough that even I can't ignore it. It's over."

Chat sensed a nerve of Marinette's being pinched, but pressed on, cautiously. "Again... I know that I've thought that sometimes. Was it a rejection, or did something that you did just not register-"

"He _loves someone else,_ okay? There, I _said it,_" Marinette burst out, falling down onto her pillow and fighting back most of her tears. "He loves someone else. He told me so, right to my face, after I made a _total_ _idiot_ of myself in front of him. I all but _threw_ myself at him, and he didn't want any part of that."

"Oh, no!" Chat gasped. A part of him felt the urge to hug her, to comfort her and try to take some of her pain away, but he didn't dare to get any closer; that much of his common sense was still operational. There was a prickly feeling at the back of his neck, a sense of impending doom, though he couldn't quite place it yet... but it was growing _quickly_.

"I'm so sorry, Marinette. I kind of know how that feels. Did he say... who it was?"

"No," she choked out, "but I'm sure that I know who it is, I know him well enough for that. I know that she's into him, too. And he'll ask her out and she'll say 'yes,' and they'll go off together and have a perfect, happy life and make perfect little fencer babies together and I'll just be _here_."

_Little FENCER babies?_

Inside Chat's head, his alarm bells all started ringing very loudly... then _shrieking_ at what little of his brain hadn't crumpled at her words.

"I..." he stammered, coherency and full sentences abandoning him for the moment.

"And the worst part," Marinette continued, sitting up again, "is that I can't even be angry! He doesn't owe me a damned thing. He's been my friend; that's all I've ever asked from him because I'm too _scared_ to ask for anything more, and I still _need_ him as my friend! If I cut him off and I didn't want to see him again, it would break my heart_ and_ his; I just don't think that he'd understand."

"I'm hurt... but I don't want to hurt him back. He didn't do it on purpose."

The prickly feeling on Chat's neck felt more like a beartrap snapping shut now.

"I just want him to be happy, Chat, do you see that?" she asked, through watery eyes. "I wanted him to be happy with _me_. To make his life better, right by his side. But I can't have that, so I just want him to be happy even if it's with _her_. I can't help it; he _deserves_ to be happy like that. It'll eat away at me inside for a while, watching it happen, but at least now I can put my side of it to rest. He's not the only boy in the world... he's just the perfect one that I loved _so, _so much."

* * *

It all came crashing down on Chat Noir at once.

_Marinette's mystery guy... the one that she's been crushing on all this time..._

All the blushes... all the stammers... all the pratfalls... the kiss on his cheek at the picnic... the way she'd melted onto him on the dance floor... the uncountable kindnesses... all those warm looks she'd given him, before shyly turning away...

The joy that he'd seen in her when he was near...

The way that he'd seen her act around him, but around no one else...

The soft words she'd spoken to Adrien's "statue," before... kissing him on the lips...

_Oh, GOD._

It was amazing how fast a year of your life could flash before your eyes, when the highlight reel consists of nothing but cues that you missed, moments that passed you by, longing that you didn't understand...

...hurt with your signature on it.

_And I told her about 'the girl that I love,' and it _wasn't her_... _

_And I couldn't have seemed more cruel to her if I'd been _trying_..._

* * *

Marinette looked over at Chat, and was stunned to see his eyes tearing up as well. Her own protective nature kicked in as she saw his obvious distress.

"C'mere," she called to him, and lunged in his direction. He couldn't help doing the same, and they came together in a comfort hug, Marinette wrapping herself around him tightly. They hung on for several seconds, drawing strength from each other.

"I am lucky to have you, you know that?" Chat heard Marinette whisper. "You're the one guy that I can be honest with about these kinds of things. I can be myself with you. That's not a little thing, Chat."

He squeezed her a little tighter in response. She couldn't see his face... but it would've told her how strongly he disagreed about his bringing her luck.

* * *

She let him go... and looked at him with more than a little wonder. _He looks worse than _I_ do now! _she thought, rather startled by that.

"I'm sorry, Chat. I feel like I'm contagious right now," she half-smiled at him, as they got their breath back. "I'm feeling down and out and I dumped it all on you at once! I didn't mean to bring you down like this."

"I asked for it, Marinette..." _God, did I EVER ask for it..._ "and I'm glad that I did. I just... I need to do some thinking of my own, okay?" he replied, hesitantly.

"Oh, please. Don't let me drag you down. I'll be okay, I promise, I just need a little time to process this and think straight again," she sniffled. "I think letting it out like this helped me some, so thank you so much for that."

"Can I... I have no right to ask this..." Chat stammered. _Don't DO this, you idiot!_ his brain screamed at him, but something deep down ignored all remaining common sense and persisted. "I know... I know that he thinks the world of you. You've been so good to him all this time. But you did... try to tell him that you didn't just care about him... that you _loved_ him?"

"Dozens of times! I sent a romantic Valentine. I made him a special birthday gift... and someone, I don't know who, told him it was from his father, and I didn't have the heart to correct it. I wrote it in a love letter, and that got mixed up with a _prescription_, of all things, and he must've thought I was insane when he read that!" Marinette replied, sadly. "I tried _yesterday,_ even. There was a... joke that wasn't really a joke, and then I tried to tell him later that it wasn't, and... I just can't... get the words out when I'm with him."

"He just... my _soul_ shakes every time he smiles at me. I can't help it. And part of me just doesn't believe that... that he could ever feel the same."

"What would you _want_ to say to him?" asked Chat, hating himself even more for speaking it out loud. "If you could? If... I was him, for instance?"

Marinette stared back at him, astonished, then with much more of an angry glare. "Chat... I'm trying to close that door in my head, okay? It's _over._ I'm not telling you that..."

She turned and looked at a picture of Adrien on the wall next to her, one that Adrien was alarmed to see _did_ in fact have little hand-drawn hearts attached to it. With a swift motion, she tore that picture down and declared, "And I'm not telling _him_ that, either." She stared down at the picture in her hands and mumbled, "I've done enough talking to inanimate objects this week, already."

Chat cringed back, saying, "Stop, please! I'm sorry! I retract the question. I shouldn't have asked it."

Her smile back at him was hard for him to read. "You're trying to help me, Chat. It's okay."

Marinette studied her masked friend's face with renewed concern. He seemed shaken to his core... as if his life had just changed right before her eyes and he had no idea how to begin to handle it.

"Chat? Are... _you_ going to be okay?" she asked, gently.

"I... kind of have to get going... if you're sure you'll be all right?" he stammered, helplessly.

Seeing his distress, Marinette's own softened a bit more. "Come here, you," she demanded, and hugged him again. "That's for being sweet to me today and checking on me," she told him. "Don't worry about me, though. I'm young, I'm tough, I'm going to get over this, okay? Come back sometime soon."

"I... I will," he told her, just before dashing up the ladder, up and out.

Marinette _foomphed_ back down onto her pillow, face first. She looked up from that position, and saw Tikki staring at her with goggle-eyed astonishment on her face.

"...What?" Marinette asked her.


	3. Ladrien Letdown

Part 3: Ladrien Letdown

* * *

"Claws in."

Plagg emerged to find Adrien in his room... on the floor... face down... not moving.

"So, _now_ you get it," Plagg smirked.

"I passed over a big dumpster on my way home," Adrien mumbled. "It was all I could do to not throw myself into it. I am the moron of morons. All hail King Moron."

Plagg let that one go without comment.

Adrien's head turned, and he glared up at Plagg. "You could have told me."

"No, I couldn't have."

"_You should have told me," _Adrien insisted, louder.

"_I couldn't have, Adrien!_" Plagg barked back. "And I _shouldn't have had to. _That girl has been nothing but devoted to you from the day you passed her that umbrella. You've had her heart in your pocket all this time, and _most_ of the time, you've been careful with it. Yesterday, you threw it out the car window with one sentence."

Adrien's harsh tone faded, as he recognized some truth in that. "I would never have... if she could've _told_ me... if I had _any_ idea, I would've been so much more... you _know _that I care about her, Plagg! This is a nightmare come to life!"

"Okay... So what are you going to _do_ about it?" asked Plagg.

In response, Adrien rolled onto his side, visibly shaken. "I... don't know," he mumbled. "I really don't know."

"Hoo, boy," Plagg grumbled. "This is gonna be a long night. Start with the basics. Do you _love her?_ At all?"

Adrien's face was a blank.

"Does this love thing come with an instruction manual?" he managed. "'Cause I need help."

* * *

Plagg flew right up to Adrien's face, with a stern look on his own.

"Well, _lah-dee-freakin'-dah,"_ Plagg grunted. "You're not going to lie here all night feeling sorry for yourself, 'cause I won't let you. Here's a little secret I've picked up over the last four thousand years; _everyone_ needs help with this stuff. _Nobody_ gets it right without a lot of flailing and fumbling around and screwing up along the way."

Adrien stared back at him, wide-eyed, as he continued. "Yeah, you don't know what you're doing. Do you think that _she does?_ She could barely _speak_ to you in whole sentences for _months_. She lied to you about it because she was _terrified_ that you'd reject her if she told you the truth! But she's worked really hard at it, she's gotten braver and braver, and she was right on the edge in the car yesterday! Even after you scared the life out of her with your statue stunt, she was trying to tell you that if she'd _known_ you weren't a statue, that kiss _wouldn't _have been a joke, because..."

"...Because?" Adrien gasped.

"...Beats me. I'm kind of guessing she was gonna say 'because she loves you,' but that's where you cut off what she was saying and you dropped a bomb on her head," Plagg muttered. "Look. I _know_ you'd never hurt her on purpose, Adrien! I know you better than that. But I repeat myself: _do you love her? At all? _That's kind of a big question right now."

"I..."

Adrien stared blankly into space for a long moment... long enough that Plagg nearly tapped him on the forehead to make sure he was still there.

"I'm... just going to start talking now, Plagg," he said, absently. "You can listen if you want."

"I'm here."

* * *

"Plagg... I thought I knew what love was."

"I close my eyes, and she's always there... my angel in scarlet. My partner, my inspiration, my dream," Adrien said, quietly. "The most... _alive_ girl I've ever known. I get to see sides of her that no one else does; when she's vulnerable, when she's troubled, when she's playful, and every moment like those is a gift."

"She keeps who's underneath hidden... but only to a point. I don't know her name, her face without the mask, her address... but I know _her_. I can't help but know her. I keep wondering if someday I'll turn a corner and hear her voice, or see someone in a crowd and her face will leap out at me, and I'll just _know_... that's my Lady."

It was all Plagg could do to keep from bursting out, either with laughter or with anguished howling. _Why not both?_ he wondered. _It's been that kind of week so far._

"I was sure that _that_ was love. It's like nothing I've ever felt before. And it's a way that only she's made me feel. But Marinette... Marinette is..."

_Come on, kid. Break through,_ thought Plagg, intensely. _This is when you need to pull it all together._

"She's just as unique as Ladybug is. And she gives me these other feelings that... well... that I don't understand all the time. She's my good friend... one of the first good friends I've ever had. You know me better than anyone else, Plagg; you know just how rare that is for me to really connect with someone! From the very first day I met her, I just knew... this was someone that I needed in my life."

Adrien looked confused, but also thoughtful. "I wondered, so many times, what it was that kept feeling... so _unusual_ around her. I saw this amazing, super-smart, funny, sweet, passionate girl who'd _charge Hell with a bucket of gasoline_ to right an injustice... but when she was with me, sometimes things were normal and fun, and sometimes they were... awkward? I really thought that I made her uncomfortable, that I was doing something wrong around her over and over, and I could never figure out what that was - especially since she's so carefree, so open with me as Chat Noir! And, I'll be honest with you, Plagg... sometimes that was _killing_ me inside."

He laid flat on his back on the floor again. "I don't know what to _do,_ Plagg... because I'm not sure what these feelings mean. When I think of Marinette, it's not quite the same as when I think of Ladybug... but I think it's just as strong in its own way. When she's sad, or troubled, or in danger, I want - I need to protect her so badly! When she's happy, she just _glows..._ and I feel like _I'm_ glowing, too. When I think about how I hurt her yesterday, and how I must've been hurting her for so long now..."

He shuddered, involuntarily. "And when I think about what it would be like to lose her, and all the things that she means to me..."

Adrien closed his eyes before anything could drip out of them. "Maybe I have known, deep down, just a little bit and I couldn't face it. Maybe I've been terrified that if I say 'no, I'm in love with Ladybug,' this incredible person would just fade out of my life and I'd feel so terrible for hurting her, so empty without her friendship and caring, and I don't know how I'd handle that!"

"And as much as I'm still devoted to my Lady... maybe there's more than one kind of love."

* * *

Plagg soaked it all in, silently. _Finally. Finally, we are on the right track,_ he thought. _It took long enough_.

"Plagg?" asked Adrien, sounding like a lost soul. "Am I making any sense?"

"I think that what you're making right now... is something that Marinette needs to hear," Plagg replied. "When and if you feel ready for that."

_"Am_ I in love with her? How am I supposed to know any more? Is what I just described... anywhere near what _she_ wants to hear?"

Plagg shook his head. "_That_ is entirely up to you and to her. That's so far above my pay grade that it's not even funny. But it's a heckuva good start."

"My starting point is... she doesn't hate me. She should... but she doesn't," Adrien ventured. "She still wants to be a part of my life. Maybe she'll never love me again... and I don't know that I could ever deserve it if she did, but she at least needs to know how I really feel about her."

Adrien opened his eyes again, still pointed at the ceiling. "I can't... I can't face her just yet. I think I'm only going to get one shot at this, if she _gives _me that one shot, so I have to get this right! And that means knowing what _I_ want... and I'm still figuring that out. I feel like my skull is full of angry spiders right now."

"I could, um, go in and check..." quipped Plagg.

"_Not _necessary," Adrien half-smiled. "I'd be afraid of what you_ would_ find in there. Empty space, most likely."

"So what's the plan, then?"

"As far as school tomorrow goes... we're going to do something that's kind of out of character for me... ditch it."

Plagg flew up to Adrien and felt his forehead, theatrically. "Am I hearing this right? Should I take your temperature?"

Adrien gave him an intense look. "I need some time and space to think. If I'm looking into those big blue eyes... I need to be ready to speak from the heart, and right now, I'm not. And as hurt as Marinette looked the last two times I saw her... do you think that she'd miss me if I'm not there tomorrow?"

Plagg scratched his tiny head. "That's... a good question."

* * *

In the morning, Adrien sat in the back of the sedan as usual, doing his best to pretend to listen to Nathalie laying out his daily schedule from the passenger seat.

"So... you feel like you're prepared for the makeup mini-shoot this afternoon?" Nathalie asked, pulling him out of his trance. "We'll need you here the moment school ends, so don't dally around with your friends."

"I got it, I got it," repeated Adrien, dutifully. _I'll make sure that I'm back here by then, and blend in with the crowd,_ he thought. _I'll be digging enough of a hole for myself as it is today._

The car pulled up to the curb, Adrien stepped out, and once he'd shut the door, Adrien feigned tying his shoelace until he saw the Gorilla pull away. His eyes followed the vehicle down the street, to the intersection and around the corner...

...and once it was out of range, Adrien shuffled across the street as quickly as he could without being overly noticeable. With the Dupain-Cheng bakery in one direction and his school in another, Adrien picked a third trajectory and did his best to duck out of sight.

* * *

As the first bell rang, Ms. Bustier's classroom began to wind down its morning chatter. The students took their seats, all of which were filled by their usual attendees... except for one.

Alya saw Nino looking back and forth between the empty chair next to him and the door as their teacher arranged her lesson plan on her desk. "What's going on?" she whispered down to him.

"I don't know," he answered, quickly and quietly. "I was up on the steps waiting for Adrien, I had something I wanted to ask him... but once his car left, he took off in another direction!"

"That's... not like him," Alya whispered, as she turned to her deskmate, who seemed to be memorizing the blank sheet of paper in front of her. "You wouldn't venture a guess?" she asked Marinette.

"I... wouldn't know," Marinette replied in a flat voice, not raising her head. "I haven't spoken with him."

Ms. Bustier turned and greeted the class, so all heads swung back to their forward and upright positions. Throughout the morning literature class, Alya snuck more than a few glances to her right.

_As I figured..._ thought Alya. _Marinette may not know where Adrien went, and she's intent on proving that she doesn't really care where he went... but she keeps watching that door._

* * *

Some distance away, thanks to Chat Noir's methods of rapid transportation... Adrien sat in a courtyard on the grounds of the Paris Diderot University, doing his best not to be noticeable. A pair of sunglasses was as much of a disguise as he felt comfortable attempting.

_A good idea, if I do say so myself,_ he thought._ It's a nice day, I can stretch out in the shade and try to make some sense of my life... and I may look a little young to be here, but there are enough other students wandering around that I don't stand out all that much._

_Now... I'm here. What am I going to _do_?_

With his back to a tree and his knees pulled in tight, he sat and worried his morning away.

_I don't think there's any way around it. I'm not going to think up some perfect speech that'll make Marinette swoon and want to be near me again,_ he reasoned. _And it wouldn't say much for her if I could, right? If I feed her a bunch of lines, she'll see through that in an instant, and she sure doesn't deserve anything insincere in the first place._

_I need to speak from the heart and just be honest with her. The 'girl that I love' isn't in love with me... she's told Chat Noir that enough times... and I don't know if I can say "the girl I'd mentioned is Ladybug," but Marinette _needs_ to know at least that much. That I'm not dating her, I'm just dreaming. That I feel as helpless as she does. _

_From what I gathered from yesterday, Marinette's sure that it's Kagami! And... I could see how she could get that impression..._

_...But that's not true, either. I... like Kagami, she's an interesting person and a friend, but we just don't... click like that. I think we both know it._

_And I think that Marinette hearing all of that is a pretty good start for what I want to say. But there's so much more that I need to figure out first._

* * *

Lunchtime arrived, and with it the usual cafeteria commotion. The girls huddled up once more, doing their best to distract Marinette with chatter and humor; to some degree, it worked. Alya noted that Marinette's eyes kept drifting over to the empty seat at Nino's table, and she still seemed worn out and distracted, but after a few minutes they'd coaxed a few giggles out of her with Rose's antics.

The group was just about to venture out into the courtyard and enjoy a little early-afternoon sunshine when a loud noise distracted everyone.

"Aw, _crap! _The Akuma alert _again?_" grumped Alix. "How many times is that this month? I'm getting tired of these drills."

"Maybe it's not a drill!" worried Rose. "C'mon, let's look."

The girls headed to the main lobby, where a television screen showed a news reporter describing an Akuma sighting to the north. "Powers are as of yet unknown," the reporter stated, "and there's no sign of heroes yet, so viewers in the area are advised to take cover..."

_"Lovely,"_ growled Marinette, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Hmmm?" asked Alya.

"Nothing," Marinette replied. "We're supposed to meet up over in the west wing as usual, right? I'll catch up. These drills take forever, and I need to use the bathroom before we stand around for half the day and wait for the all-clear..."

"Gotcha," Alix grinned. "Been there, done that! We'll cover for you 'til you get there."

As she watched her friends depart and she slipped back out of the restroom, Marinette grumbled, "I am _so_ not in the mood for this right now. I just want to crawl into one of those stalls and not come out for a week."

"It's not about mood, it's about need," Tikki piped up from her purse. "Are you okay to do this today?"

"I have to be, don't I?" she replied, wearily. "Let's get it over with. Spots on."

* * *

As the hours passed and his thoughts came together, Adrien's unease began to quiet somewhat, though his stomach didn't. A few rumbles reminded him that lunch should very much be on his agenda soon.

"Plagg... could you use some cheese?" he said, quietly.

"Does the Pope crap in the woods? Of course I could," a voice from his pocket declared. "Know any place good around here?"

"Not really. But I figure that near a university, there are bound to be options that are good, fast and cheap, or at least two out of three. Let's go see what we can find."

Adrien got up, dusted himself off and began wandering the campus, in search of a cafe offering something light. _There has to be something around here that won't fry my diet too badly,_ he reasoned, _and isn't floating in a river of grease._

A few minutes later, however, something less appetizing crossed his path. He happened across a couple of students having a conversation in front of one of the dormitories, who were interrupted by a third running up to them, wildly excited...

"_Dude!_" he gasped, pointing in the direction from which he'd come. "There's, like, an Akuma or something about six blocks up!"

"Seriously?" one of his friends asked. "This isn't some kind of prank again?"

"If it is, it's the best prank ever," he replied. "It's, like, three meters tall, and all crackly and leafy... you gotta see this!"

"Let's go check it out!" the second friend agreed. "It'll be so cool to see a fight up close, not on TV!"

As they took off, Adrien raised an eyebrow. "That sounds about right, huh?" he mumbled to Plagg. "It's something that could kill us! Let's go get close to it!"

"Oh, like you don't wanna see what they're talking about," Plagg chuckled back. "Let's follow them. If it is an Akuma, you'll need to be there anyway, and if it isn't, maybe there's a cheese shop nearby."

* * *

"Well... _there's_ something you don't see every day."

Adrien couldn't help but marvel at what was trudging down the street. It was indeed a... well, a giant green vegetable, with big googly eyes and stubby little legs protruding from its white base. It looked like it had just stepped out of an old cartoon, and a crowd had formed around it, moving along with it... but the energy crackling around its balled-up fists kept them at a reasonable distance.

Instinctively, Adrien started scanning the area, taking in all the relevant data: what the villain's powers might be, to where the crowd could escape, where he could sneak off to transform, potential dangers in the environment...

Light footfalls and a blur of red announced that gawking time was over. The crowd parted around Ladybug, giving her some space, almost as if two gunslingers were facing off in an old Western movie.

"One chance," Ladybug snapped. "Surrender now. I won't ask again."

"_Surrender?" _roared the monstrosity. _"You_ will be the one surrendering to the might of the _Radiation Leek!_ Too long have my brethren suffered the indignities of clumsy feet, lawn mowers and hungry mammals!" It waggled its tiny arms menacingly, which might have been comical without the searing energy writhing around them.

_Time to MOVE!_ thought Adrien. _I need to get through this crowd of gawking idiots and find a place to transform NOW..._

"Once Hawkmoth has your Miraculous, he has promised me a place of honor in our New Plant Order-"

Ladybug didn't say a word.

Instead, her yo-yo lashed out with the speed of thought, wrapping itself around the villain and pinning its tiny arms to its sides. Before anyone had a chance to react, she gave the string a mighty yank, launching the vegetable towards her... and whipped out a vicious roundhouse kick to its head, sending it flying back several meters.

A loud gasp erupted from the crowd at the swift and blinding violence... and from Adrien as well, involuntarily.

_That's... REALLY not like her_, he gaped, as she strode over to her fallen foe. Something shiny had fallen from its grasp - Adrien couldn't tell quite what, from a distance - and Ladybug stomped on it with all her might, releasing a purple butterfly from it.

Adrien continued to watch, mesmerized, as Ladybug flicked her yo-yo again and captured it. _No "Time to de-evilize," no "bye-bye, little butterfly," no Lucky Charm, no hint of a smile... no looking for a non-violent solution first... _

_Something is _seriously_ bothering her, _he fretted.

The crowd began to disperse, some perhaps as startled as Adrien was, others complaining that it was barely even a fight. Adrien stepped forward towards Ladybug, a little hesitantly, as she leaned over and checked on an old hippie-looking farmer on the ground who seemed rather dazed.

"What... happened, man?" the figure moaned. "One minute, I was just... weeding my garden..."

"Are you all right?" Adrien called to Ladybug as he approached, her back turned to him.

"He'll be fine," she said, without turning. "Akumas are really durable, and he's free of it now."

"I meant... are _you_ all right, Ladybug?"

* * *

She froze in mid-thought, once his voice registered in her mind.

He counted in his head - _six, seven, eight, NINE, TEN, what is going on?_ \- until she turned her head to look at him, and even then it seemed... forced on her part.

Ladybug gave him a sad look... perhaps a hint of a smile, or maybe he was imagining it... and answered, "I'll be okay... don't worry about me," in a flat voice.

And with a sudden movement, her yo-yo was in motion and she was gone.

* * *

Adrien made for cover with unsteady legs, so that he could talk to Plagg. Once they were in an alleyway, the Kwami floated out and hovered next to him, looking rather startled himself.

"I wasn't expecting hugs and kisses, Plagg... I don't know what I was expecting, really. But that wasn't it," Adrien said. "Something has _seriously_ gotten to Ladybug."

_You break a girl's heart, kid, you pay the fiddler_, Plagg wanted to say. Instead, he just made a small grunting noise of agreement and tried not to look suspicious.

"I need you for a second, to send a message, okay?" Adrien asked, and at Plagg's nod, transformed and pulled out his communicator.

"Hey, my Lady... I got here and found you'd already cleaned house. Can, um... can we do a patrol tonight together? Our usual meeting place? I could, uh, use the practice."

"Claws in," he finished, and gave Plagg another look of concern. "What do you think?" Adrien wondered aloud. "Something in her private life, or did I do something? She didn't look happy when she got here, but when she heard my voice, she just froze... She didn't want to even look at me! Like... like..."

Adrien turned as white as a sheet. "Oh... oh, _no_. No. No, no, _no, no, no, _it _can't," _he mumbled. "It couldn't be..."

Plagg's mental radar started pinging loudly. _Oh, he did NOT just figure her identity out! She didn't exactly hide her emotions very well just now..._

"What, uh, what do you think it is?" he asked Adrien, with a feeling of dread.

"Plagg..." Adrien half-whispered, "I think that Ladybug... _must've talked with Marinette. _I know they've met. Everyone else is furious at me for being so stupid around Marinette and hurting her like that... _she must know that, too! _Her friend is heartbroken, and she knows that it's _my fault! _It all _fits!"_

He looked down at his Kwami, expecting shock or surprise... but, instead, Plagg was floating there with an eyebrow raised and a bemused expression.

"How about we get you back to your school now, before you hurt yourself trying to think?" Plagg grumbled.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" asked Adrien...


	4. Ladynoir Enlightenment

Part 4: LadyNoir Enlightenment

* * *

_He just _had_ to have picked tonight._

Ladybug stood atop a store roof, about three blocks away from her house, psyching herself up to go and meet Chat Noir for the night patrol that he'd requested.

_I guess that it's probably good for me to keep busy. The more I'm swinging across Paris, the less I'm thinking about... him. _

_And despite the earful that Tikki gave me about how I handled that veggie villain, taking him out like that actually felt kind of... good, in a wrong kind of way!_ she grinned. _Working my frustrations out, you could call it._ _Maybe I should invest in a punching bag or a tackling dummy or something, though Mom might wonder why I put one on my balcony, next to my begonias._

_Though any frustrations I worked off came right back, when..._

_How could HE have been there? _

Ladybug shook her head. _I thought I was hallucinating at first! I was halfway across town from school. Why wouldn't he have been in class? Or at home, or anywhere other than right there, watching me act out my stupid emotions - AGAIN?_

_I can't avoid him forever. I don't really want to, either, and he had no idea who he was really looking at... and that look of concern in his eyes just twisted me up inside... _

She did her best to clear her mind. _All right, girl, concentrate. Tonight, you're going to be all business._ _Chat wants to roam around and look for trouble; we'll look for trouble._

_And may God help any trouble that we find_, she smiled, clenching her fist.

* * *

A few minutes later, she landed on the roof of one of the major libraries in Paris, a very common meeting spot for the two of them. Her partner was pacing back and forth, looking quite agitated, and jumped a little bit when he heard her land a short distance behind him.

"Sorry," Ladybug apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine, it's fine," Chat waved her off. "I should've seen you coming. I'm just... not myself tonight."

"That makes two of us," she mumbled. "Are you up for this tonight, Chat? I know that you asked to go out together, but we don't have to do a full patrol cycle... like, if you had something specific you wanted to work on? Or one of those double-team moves we've been talking about, we could practice that."

"Actually..." Chat gestured to a pair of crates he'd set up as makeshift chairs, and sat down on one of them. "I was wondering if we could just... sit and talk for a little while first? If an Akuma shows up, we need to be on the same page to fight effectively... and I'm not sure that either of us is ready for that right now."

Ladybug gave him a long stare as she walked over to her seat. "What is this, Chat?" she asked, puzzled. "I don't know that I really want to talk about... certain things..."

"Look, I promise... this isn't another one of my Ladybug-will-you-date-me things, okay?" explained Chat. "Romancing you is the _last_ thing on my mind right now. And I know we have to keep our secrets safe, we can't name names or give too many details about our private lives, but I could really use your advice on something important... and I got the feeling today that you might have things on your mind, too."

She felt a little suspicious, despite herself... but forced herself to relax. _This is my partner, after all... and he was so sweet to me yesterday at my house. I owe him enough to help him, if I can,_ she thought.

"All right, Chat... you're probably right. Life has been kicking my butt lately, and it looks like yours, too... so let's try and help each other," Ladybug told him. "You first. What's troubling you?"

* * *

Chat took a deep breath, then sighed. "I alienated someone very, very dear to me recently. I spoke without thinking first..."

Ladybug fake-gasped, theatrically. "You? I can't believe _that._"

That got her a dirty look, and she felt bad for having said it. "I'm sorry, Chat," she apologized in a more contrite tone. "I'm taking this seriously, I really am. I'll behave."

Chat smiled at that. "Usually, I'm the one who gets in trouble for... anyway, this person is one of my best friends. They... I won't say 'he' or 'she,' for secrecy's sake... they were out with me, and I said something that I thought was pretty innocent, and I meant no harm at all by it. I was talking about _myself_, even, not them! But there was something I didn't know about them, and what I said sounded like I was sticking a knife in their heart. I messed up _bad."_

"They didn't tell you that right away?" Ladybug asked. "It wasn't obvious?"

"When I said it, I knew something was wrong, but not _that_ wrong. It wasn't until the next day that I figured out the full weight of what I'd done."

Ladybug scratched her chin, pondering the situation. "Have you talked to them since?" she inquired.

"Not... directly," evaded Chat. "They don't really want to be near me right now, so I kind of used... someone else's help to get a chance to find out. I'm trying to work out what I should say to them when I get the chance."

"Can you be any more specific about what you said?" asked Ladybug. "Only what you can tell me, but, like... was it an insult, or something that they took as one? I know you well enough that you wouldn't go _too_ far over the line..."

"It was about... feelings. Feelings that I didn't know they had for someone."

Ladybug stared back at him... _hard_.

* * *

"Go on..." she growled, warily.

"I was talking about these kinds of things with a good friend yesterday. She... said things that really rang a bell in my head, and made me realize what was going on in my own situation," Chat ventured. "I felt terrible about it; I was there to try to cheer _her_ up and I nearly fell apart myself."

_Ohhhhh_, Ladybug thought, breathing a sigh of relief. _At first, I thought he was talking about me like _I_ was the one he'd hurt, but I'm the friend he's talking about now, instead._

_Wait. But if he wasn't talking about me, and yesterday struck a chord with him, that means..._

"Wait a minute," Ladybug said, a smile emerging. "Chat Noir... did this friend you're talking about have a _crush_ _on you_?"

Chat hesitated, open-mouthed... then laughed a little. "You're too good at this," he replied. "Yes... she did." His humor faded fast, though, as he added, "And I'm kind of confused as to what to do about it. It's really delicate and... I can't hurt her more than I have already."

"I can relate to that more than you know, Chat," said Ladybug... trailing off, stopping herself from going too far with that line of thought.

"Like my crush on you, you mean?" Chat parried.

"I wasn't going _there,_" backpedaled Ladybug. "But... you know, maybe that does relate a little bit. Because I have this wonderful partner, one of the sweetest guys I know underneath all the... punning and the bravado and the chest-puffing..."

"I do _not _puff my chest up," Chat insisted, with wounded dignity. "This is all me," he said, thumping his pecs.

"...And he's had feelings for me that I haven't been ready to return yet," she continued, ignoring that with a smile. "And I've kind of been walking on eggshells sometimes, because he really _is_ dear to me, he means so much to me, and I don't ever want to hurt him even if I can't go _there_."

"All right," Chat smiled. "That does sound a bit familiar." A tiny voice in his head echoed _Yet?, _but he suppressed it for the moment.

"So how do you feel about _her?_" Ladybug asked. "Is there anything there that could work out?"

"I don't think there is," he replied, sadly. "I'd... part of me would like there to be. I'd never even considered it before, you know? I'm rethinking a lot of things about feelings in general right now... but I missed my chance with her for sure."

"Then let me suggest this, Chat," Ladybug said, softly. "Kind of like how you and I aren't dating... but we're close like this, and I've tried to be as honest as I can why we're _not_ dating? When you get the chance... talk to her. Be as honest as you can about what you feel and what you don't. If it's complicated, tell her why it's complicated. Don't let _me_ stand in your way if it's something that you want to pursue, either."

"And every day that I'm near her, I'll have a burning feeling in my stomach over what I did to her," Chat moped. "And I'll deserve it."

"You can't wave a magic wand and fix it. So do what you _can_ do. Tell her what you think. If she cares about you like you say she does, she'll want to listen."

He smiled back at her. "That's kind of where I was planning on heading with this... but it's good to hear it from someone like you. Makes me feel like I might know a little of what I'm doing."

An errant thought struck him. "If I do go that way... and something does work out, somehow... you're not going to feel funny about it, are you?" Chat asked.

"Funny?" wondered Ladybug, with a curious expression.

"If I'm falling for someone who isn't you, for once."

To his surprise... she didn't have a quip ready to knock that aside. In fact, she seemed at a loss for words for a moment.

"Chat..." she said, "all I've wanted for you is for you to be happy. Even if it isn't with me. And it probably shouldn't be," she added, with a grin.

_Probably,_ he thought. _Also an odd choice of phrase._

_Is she... blushing a little?_

* * *

"All right," Chat mumbled, trying to defuse the situation. _I'm confused enough already as it is, _he reasoned, _no need to go THERE tonight! _"Can I check on you now?"

"What's there to check on?" Ladybug wondered, trying to look innocent.

"I... saw the footage of you and the Radiation Leek today. University campus, so it was on Twitter in, like, ten seconds," he explained. "I'm not sure that I've ever seen you react like that."

"I didn't want the crowd around us to get hurt," Ladybug said. "I wanted to end it quickly."

"That crowd could've scattered any time they wanted to," Chat pointed out. "And you weren't, like, yelling 'Get away from him!' or anything like that. Not that they probably would've listened."

"He could've blasted them with radiation. It was in his name, even," she attempted next.

"He could barely raise those stubby little arms high enough to aim at _you_! This was _not_ Hawkmoth's finest moment," laughed Chat.

Ladybug started to speak, then stopped, rummaging in her head for what might be a more plausible explanation.

"And I _know_ you, Bugaboo. You're the _thinker_ of the two of us. You're always looking for a way to beat Akumas with your brain, not to just come out swinging. What if that Akuma _hadn't_ been that durable? What if he'd zapped you on contact?" he argued. "I know you can handle yourself, Ladybug; that's not what I'm getting at, I don't need to hold your hand out there. But you were... you _really _weren't yourself today."

"I can... have a bad day like anyone else," she replied, defensively. "I'm allowed, right?"

_Don't look at me like that, Chat, _thought Ladybug. _ You're right, I'm really shaky.__.. but I don't really want to face that right now. But when you give me those sad eyes, when you're so worried about me..._

"Of course. But if I can help spare you one of those..." Chat said, looking even more concerned. "What's really going on, my Lady? Is there anything you can tell me?"

All of a sudden, she felt like Marinette sitting on her bed again, looking across at a handsome superhero who'd come to visit her, wondering what to say next.

* * *

And when that moment passed, her willpower reasserted herself. _And I'M a freakin' superheroine and I don't need this right now!_

"I _don't_ want to talk about that, Chat. I'm sorry," she said, some grit returning to her voice. "I'm having some problems in my personal life, kind of... kind of like what you were just talking about. _Feelings_ problems. It's nothing you can help with, this is not an invitation; I'll be fine once I... get over some things."

"I'm _serious. _I've been doing this with you for a long time now, and I've never seen you _this_ shaken up," Chat continued, undaunted. "Maybe I can't help. But I want you to know that-"

"Chat... let's patrol, or something, okay?" Ladybug announced, abruptly. "C'mon. I need to _move!"_

Chat stared as Ladybug hopped up, dove over the edge of the roof and sent her yo-yo flying. He chased after her, now more worried than ever.

"Wait!" he called, straining to keep up with her.

_This is not happening, _he panicked. _I'm not driving away _both_ the girls that I..._

"I _don't want to talk about it!_" she called back, over her shoulder as she swung at high speed. "I just _don't! _It was _humiliating! _One of the worst moments of my _life!_ And I don't need to hear whatever little _one-liners _you'll come up with about it!"

"I _promise_ you, I wouldn't _do_ that!_" _Chat shouted. "You _tell me all the time_ that I _tell too many jokes_, and you're _right!_ I won't-"

* * *

Ladybug's mind went completely blank.

_WHAT did he just say?_

* * *

About three seconds later, Chat Noir had the unenviable experience of watching Ladybug's grip loosen on her yo-yo, followed by her splatting like a bug onto a billboard.

* * *

_"LADYBUG!_ Are you all right?" Chat shouted, leaping to her side once he managed to believe what he'd just seen.

_Was there some Akuma attack that I didn't see?_ he panicked, looking all around and brandishing his baton. When nothing seemed to leap out of the night at them, he knelt immediately by Ladybug's side; she didn't seem hurt, just stunned, now up on one knee and holding her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked, tenderly. "What happened? I didn't - _YIIIII!"_

With a growl from deep down, Ladybug lunged at Chat and bowled him over. He landed hard, flat on his back with Ladybug's hands pinning his shoulders down, and from the fury on her face he felt fortunate that they weren't around his neck.

"_Start talking_," Ladybug shouted at him, her eyes raging. "Did he put you up to this, somehow? _Did he?_ How _dare_ you! How _DARE YOU!_"

Chat's face was pure panic. "How dare I _what?_ Who put me up to _what, _Ladybug?" he choked out.

"What you just _said! Where_ did you _hear it? _When did he tell you that? He _had to have told you that!_"

"You try to get me to be more serious _all the time! _Just yesterday at the wax museum, while we were fighting those villain figures, you did it again!" Chat pleaded.

"No, those _exact words_!" she growled, her right hand clenching into a fist. "I said something _kind of_ like that during the fight... But the way you said it just now! It was _exactly_ like he did-"

"He _WHO?"_ shouted Chat, flinching as best he could while pinned down.

Ladybug closed her eyes, and shouted back, all rational thought gone in the moment...

"The boy who _broke my damn HEART!"_

* * *

Silence reigned for quite some time.

Chat Noir barely noticed when the pressure from Ladybug's hands diminished, when her weight on top of him shifted, and when she rolled off of him, leaving him staring straight up at the evening sky.

He had other things on his mind.

* * *

_The girl that I love... tells me all the time that I tell too many jokes._

_That's what I said. That's what started this whole disaster, me and my big stupid mouth._

_But I didn't say that to LADYBUG... I said that to..._

_It isn't possible..._

_It just isn't POSSIBLE..._

Chat sat up, slowly and warily. About two meters away, his partner sat alone, staring into space, her hand over her mouth as if trying to cram her words back inside of her.

"Oh, no. Oh, _no_," she panted, to no one in particular.

_But it's true. Just look at her face; she knows what she just said. _

_She knows that you know._

_That I know... _

_T__hat MARINETTE is..._

* * *

Slowly, Chat stood up, and his brain shouted out one overwhelming directive, blotting out the fireworks exploding in the rest of his mind:

_STOP._

_Don't think too hard. Don't freak out. Plenty of time to go insane later!_

_Go to her, NOW. Fix this. Say what you need to say. Say how you feel. Just let it all out. NOW!_

_It all depends on this moment._

* * *

Ladybug looked up at Chat Noir with pure helplessness in her eyes.

_I was alone with Adrien in that car. The driver was the only other one who heard what he said, and I know _he_ didn't tell anyone._

_Chat had to have heard it from Adrien... maybe Chat went after him after I told him what had happened to me... that's the kind of big, stupid, gallant gesture I know he would make. "Defending my honor" like a well-meaning goof. And if he knows that that's exactly what Adrien said... _

_...I just blew my secret identity! There's no way that Chat can't know now._

She watched as he walked the short distance over to her, then sat down beside her legs, his body pointed the other way so that they were face to face. His eyes were huge, his face a picture of shock - _of course it is, I just threw my biggest secret right in his face like an IDIOT - _and yet he looked more sad than excited in the moment.

"Ladybug..." he said, very, very quietly. "There's something that I need to say right now."

"You know," she sobbed back. "I _know_ you do."

"I know a _lot_ of things that I didn't know two days ago. That's what I need to tell you, to be completely honest with you about, if you'll listen, okay?"

She nodded, unable to do much else.

* * *

"There's this girl... the one that I was telling you about a few minutes ago. The one that I hurt with careless words that I'd do anything to take back," he began, softly. "She hasn't wanted to even look at me ever since, and I can't blame her one bit, because she told me just how deep that hurt went. How careless I had been, how stupid I had been, how I'd been right next to her for months and never seen the obvious because I had spots in my eyes."

"She said it a lot nicer than that, of course, because that's what she's like. She's the kind of person who sees the best in everyone, even when they don't deserve it. And I know that I don't deserve her."

Ladybug nodded again, trying to process his words, unable to reconcile how hauntingly familiar they sounded, noting a prickly feeling starting to form on the back of her neck.

"And you're right. I didn't mean to... when I said that now, I wasn't thinking of... okay... what I said just now _was_ what I said that afternoon, the words that broke her heart. She knows that I didn't mean to hurt her, _I_ know that I didn't mean to hurt her... but I did it, just the same, and I'm so sorry. All the more sorry because once I realized what I'd done, once she'd told me that from her own lips..."

* * *

_Wait,_ thought Ladybug.

_Wait!_

She tried to stop him, but she couldn't move, she couldn't speak.

_Adrien said those words to me... you didn't. You weren't there! Of course you weren't there._

_And I... _

_I talked about what happened with YOU. Not with Adrien. I haven't talked to Adrien since!_

_How can you know ANY of this?_

_...Chat?_

* * *

Chat Noir looked deep into Ladybug's widening eyes, and continued, "I'd had the most important person in my life right next to me, all that time. Someone who'd had a piece of my heart all along, someone who'd given me all of hers to carry, and I didn't realize it until I'd broken it. Someone that I had lots of emotions about that I didn't understand... but now I think I do."

"She's someone I fell for a long time ago," he whispered, "not tonight. Not from what was just said here. Not because you're Ladybug. But because of who you are, no matter what you're wearing." He added, fighting a smile, "Not that you don't look _really good_ in red and black."

"I'm... I don't... _Chat?"_ Ladybug gasped. "I'm not sure if I'm thinking straight. Are you telling me..."

"I'm telling you that there's something that you really, really need to know right now..." Chat said, then took a deep breath.

"Claws in."

* * *

"_GAAAAAH!"_

Adrien watched Ladybug shift from raw panic, scooting backwards... to absolute astonishment... to something in between that and wonder.

Very slowly, she inched her way back to her original position, then extended a hand to Adrien's face, as if afraid that it would pop like a soap bubble. Its warmth, its softness reassured her.

"This is _real,"_ Ladybug whispered, double-checking which world it was that she lived in.

"It is. And I had no idea until tonight."

The gears spinning in her head started producing a far better grade of realizations.

"So... the 'girl that you love...' The one you'd mentioned in the car..." she gasped.

Adrien simply nodded, daring to smile again. "She's here. I think they're both here."

Ladybug nodded once more, a smile unsuccessfully trying to emerge, still taking it all in, still reeling.

"If that other girl _was_ here... and you were going to tell her how you feel about her, how you _really_ feel... what would you tell her?" she asked him, desperately.

"That sounds like a question I asked her, and she didn't want to answer," Adrien teased, gently. "Not that I blame her, it was totally unfair of me to ask..."

_"Please?"_ Ladybug said, with needful eyes. "I... kind of need to hear it right now."

* * *

Adrien swallowed hard.

"She needs to know that she's the reason I look forward to school every day. I know that I'll see her, I'll be warmed by her smile, I'll hear her sweet laugh that's music to my ears," he began, haltingly. "That from the very first day I met her, I knew that I'd want her to be part of my life. That's why I didn't just let the gum-on-her-seat misunderstanding stay that way. Why I knew that I had to reach out like I did, though I'm _still_ not very good at it."

"How I worry about whether I'm a good enough friend to her. I worry that a _lot," _he continued. "I really didn't understand why... why she got nervous, why her words got mixed up sometimes, why I was the only person that seemed to happen with. Why I sometimes had doubts that she even _liked_ me, let alone _LIKED-liked _me..."

"You _know_ me, Bugaboo," he smiled, sadly. "You know how new I am at all of this. I thought, well, you fall in love, you just throw yourself at them and charm them and everything falls into place. And when I did that with you... it kind of didn't, but you put up with me anyway! And I didn't really grasp how people express those feelings in other ways."

His eyes sank for a moment. "The ways that... she did. She tried so hard, so many times, and I was so _thick-headed_. And I'm so sorry for that. I really wish that I'd known."

He looked up at Ladybug once more, whose eyes had never left his face. "I don't know how I would've reacted at first if she had, I'll be honest; I was so... so... head-over-heels for _you_ that it sort of swallowed up everything else in my head. I don't imagine _you_ know what it's like to have an overwhelming crush like that, would you?" he asked, wryly.

That got a giggle out of her. "Maybe... just a little," she said.

"I knew who I wanted. I didn't realize that who I _needed_ was right there the whole time. And neither of those were who she might've thought it was... there will be no 'perfect little fencer babies...'"

More nervous laughter spilled out, and an actual smile from Ladybug.

"So I don't know what she thinks about all of this," Adrien said. "I don't know if she can forgive me, or what tonight will change between us. But I know that the girl that I called my everyday Ladybug... she's someone I want to be near every day."

* * *

Ladybug sat still for a long moment, smiling softly at him, searching for any words that would come to her.

They looked at each other, silently... then with wider smiles... and then laughter burst out of both of them, uncontrollably, letting much of the tension in the air slowly drift away... taking some pain away with it.

* * *

"It's not like I could ever stay mad at you, anyway," Ladybug sighed, gathering her breath once that passed. "But my life makes so much more sense now."

"I hope so. I hope that you'll let me be a part of it again," Adrien replied, eagerly. "Whatever part you'd like me to be."

"Close your eyes, Adrien," Ladybug said, in a soft tone. He did, wondering what she meant by that.

"What I think," she added, "is that after all of this craziness, all of this heartache that we've both felt... what we need is a fresh start. We should wipe the slate clean, we should start over, and we should _really_ get to know each other. The _real_ us. Warts and all."

"I'd like that very much," Adrien replied, his smile growing.

"You're sure? You can put up with a silly girl that stumbles over things, gets tongue-tied, has wild daydreams and kisses statues?" she grinned.

"Especially because of that," he breathed.

"Spots off."

Adrien's eyes snapped open... and his favorite blue eyes in the whole world were gazing into them, as she leaned in close.

"Hi," Marinette blushed. "You wouldn't have an umbrella I could borrow, would you?"

* * *

~fin~


End file.
